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English Level Test C2 – Test 1

C2 Proficiency Level testEnglish

This C2 placement test checks whether a learner is secure at the highest CEFR level. It covers inversion, the subjunctive, advanced conditionals, collocation, idiom, word formation, error spotting and a demanding reading text. It suits advanced learners, exam candidates and teachers who need a quick, reliable placement check.

Questions
50
Time
60 min
PDF
7 pages
Answer key
Included
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Choose the one correct option for each question. You have 60 minutes. Choose your answers, then press “Check my answers”.

Part 1: Advanced grammar

Choose the option that correctly completes each sentence.

  1. Scarcely _____ the stage when the lights went out.

  2. It's high time the council _____ something about the potholes on this road.

  3. _____ I to accept the offer, I would have to relocate to another city.

  4. Not until the results were published _____ how close the vote had been.

  5. The committee recommended that the proposal _____ postponed until spring.

  6. Had it not been for her quick thinking, the fire _____ the whole building.

  7. The documents, _____ were badly water-damaged, had to be restored by specialists.

  8. _____ his reservations, he signed the contract without further delay.

  9. You _____ have told me earlier! I could have helped you.

  10. The bridge is thought _____ in the twelfth century.

  11. So _____ the demand that tickets sold out within minutes.

  12. She is said to _____ for the company for over a decade before she retired.

  13. But for a handful of generous donors, the project, now in its fifth year, _____ off the ground.

  14. The more I learn about the issue, _____.

  15. Try as she _____, she couldn't get the lid off the jar.

  16. Rarely _____ such a compelling debut novel.

Part 2: Vocabulary, collocation and idiom

Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence.

  1. The proposal came _____ heavy criticism from local residents.

  2. Her argument doesn't hold _____ when you look at the figures closely.

  3. Once the new evidence emerged, his position was no longer _____.

  4. The scheme was widely criticised for its lack of _____. (ACCOUNT)

  5. His explanation was so _____ that nobody in the room could follow it.

  6. She was _____ to admit that she had made a mistake.

  7. I'm not going to _____ words: the report is a disaster.

  8. The new manager wasted no time in _____ her authority.

  9. The proposal was met with a _____ response: polite, but hardly enthusiastic.

  10. The town's economy is heavily _____ on tourism.

  11. Despite repeated setbacks, the team remained _____ in their commitment to the project.

  12. The rumours eventually _____ when no evidence emerged to support them.

  13. Her latest novel is a _____ departure from her earlier work.

  14. He has a _____ for exaggeration, so take what he says with a pinch of salt.

  15. The _____ of the matter is that we simply cannot afford it.

  16. Getting the grant is a long _____, but it's worth applying anyway.

Part 3: Accuracy, error spotting and paraphrase

Choose the correct sentence, identify the error, or select the best option, as instructed in each question.

  1. Which sentence is correct?

  2. Which sentence is incorrect?

  3. Which sentence is correct?

  4. Which word is incorrect? 'The committee, whom many believed was biased, eventually reversed its decision.'

  5. Which part is incorrect? 'Under no circumstances you should open the door to strangers.'

  6. Which sentence is grammatically and logically correct?

  7. Which sentence is closest in meaning to: 'I had no sooner sat down than the phone rang.'?

  8. Which sentence best rephrases: 'It wasn't necessary for you to bring a gift, but it was kind of you.'?

  9. She's not so much a teacher _____ a mentor to her students.

  10. I'd sooner you _____ the decision until we've spoken to the lawyers.

  11. The defendant denied _____ at the scene of the crime.

  12. What _____ me most was her complete lack of remorse.

Part 4: Reading comprehension

Read the text and choose the best answer to each question.

Every translator eventually confronts a paradox: the more faithfully one renders the words of a text, the more one risks betraying its spirit. A pun, a regional idiom or the particular rhythm of a sentence rarely survives a literal transfer intact. Faced with this, translators have long divided into two loose camps. One favours what might be called transparency, producing a version that reads as though it had been written in the target language. The other prefers to let the foreignness of the original show through, on the grounds that readers ought to be reminded they are encountering another culture rather than a domesticated copy of their own.

Neither position is as straightforward as its advocates sometimes suggest. A seamless translation can be praised for its readability while quietly erasing everything that made the source distinctive. The reader comes away believing they have understood a writer whose humour, allusions and cadences have in fact been replaced. Conversely, a translation that clings to the contours of the original may preserve its strangeness at the cost of making it almost unreadable, so that the foreignness the translator wished to honour becomes merely an obstacle.

What tends to be overlooked in this debate is that translation is not a single decision but thousands of small ones, each made under different pressures. A translator might domesticate a joke that would otherwise fall flat, yet deliberately retain an unfamiliar word for a dish or a garment, trusting the context to carry its meaning. Far from being inconsistent, such choices reflect a recognition that no single principle can govern every line.

It is perhaps for this reason that the most accomplished translators are often reluctant to theorise about their work. Asked to explain a particular choice, they are as likely to speak of the 'feel' of a passage as of any rule. This is not mysticism; it is the accumulated judgement of someone who has spent years listening closely to two languages at once. The translation that results is less a copy than a performance: faithful, at its best, not to every word but to the experience of reading the original.

  1. What paradox does the writer describe in the first paragraph?

  2. The second group of translators believes that a translation should

  3. According to the second paragraph, a 'seamless' translation may

  4. The phrase 'clings to the contours of the original' most nearly means

  5. How does the writer view translators who combine different approaches within one text?

  6. What does the final paragraph suggest about experienced translators' reluctance to theorise?

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About this test

This C2 placement test checks whether a learner is secure at the highest CEFR level. It covers inversion, the subjunctive, advanced conditionals, collocation, idiom, word formation, error spotting and a demanding reading text. It suits advanced learners, exam candidates and teachers who need a quick, reliable placement check.

Topics covered

Inversion and emphasisSubjunctive and unreal pastAdvanced conditionalsCollocations and idiomsWord formationError identificationReading comprehension

How to use this test

  1. Download the PDF and print it, or take the test online below.
  2. Answer every question without a dictionary or time pressure.
  3. Check your answers and note the topics you need to review.

Notes for teachers

Use the total score as a guide: 42 or more suggests a secure C2 learner, 32 to 41 points to a strong C1 still working towards C2, and below 32 indicates C1 or lower. The test targets typical advanced errors, such as missing inversion after negative adverbials, confusing loath and loathe, dangling participles and the misuse of suggest + object + infinitive. As a follow-up, ask learners to rewrite the sentences they got wrong and to summarise the reading text in about 80 words.